The Conservatives hopes of establishing a foothold in Montreal have been dashed.
The fight for Mount Royal ended with a decisive victory for Liberal Anthony Housefather over Conservative Robert Libman.
"The last election was close in this riding," he said. "I'm so happy that we pulled through and won by a good margin. I'm very pleased."
The campaign had been marked by accusations of underhanded tactics.
"I think in the end my hard work paid off and people chose to vote for a positive campaign," said Housefather. "I was always running on why people should vote for me, never did anything negative. I think sometimes negative campaigns come back and bite the people doing them."
Libman said it had been a close race up until the end.
“The last week or two with the Trudeau surge, it became very difficult," he said. "People got caught up in Trudeaumania 2.0."
He added that the erosion of the NDP vote in the riding compared to 2011 also hurt him.
When asked whether he and Housefather were too similar as candidates due to both having served as mayor of Cote-Saint-Luc, Libman replied he never felt Housefather was his opponent.
“It wasn’t so much me against Anthony," he said. "He has his strengths and he ran a strong campaign, but it really was in my view and many members of my communities view, major differences and values between the Conservatives and the Liberals.”
The riding had been the site of Stephen Harper’s first campaign stop, a sign of just how much importance the Conservatives had placed on it. It held symbolic significance as the riding was once the seat of Pierre Trudeau.
More to come.
